MATT WALLACE claimed victory on the par-three contest but has also threatened to derail his bid to become the first debutant to win the Masters for 40 years.
The Englishman sunk a hole-in-one on the eighth to match long-time leader Sandy Lyle before pipping the Scot with a birdie on the third hole of a sudden-death playoff.
However, the 28-year-old has unwittingly cursed himself for the main event as no golfer has ever won both in the same week since the pre-tournament started in 1960.
The Masters rookie had already had to contend with the fact that Fuzzy Zoeller was the last debutant to wear a coveted Green Jacket at the first attempt in 1979.
Wallace said: “I wanted to hole that putt on the last, and I didn’t, and then went to a playoff and it got a little bit more serious than how the nine holes went.
“I guess I just I wanted to win this. I want to break history somewhat.”
Both Wallace and Lyle finished a shot ahead of Bubba Watson, Martin Kaymer and amateur Devon Bling, who made an ace on the seventh.
Had the 61-year-old won the play-off, he would have tied Padraig Harrington for the most victories in the Par 3 Contest with three a piece.
Lyle had previously claimed the pre-tournament contest in 1997 and the following year in 98, a decade on from his 1988 triumph in the Masters.
The fact that since its debut no Par 3 winner have prevailed in the Masters in the same week has sparked legends of a curse, most famously, with Ben Crenshaw in 1987.
1.30pm BST Adam Long, Andrew Landry, Corey Conners (Can)
1.41pm Ian Woosnam (Wal), Keith Mitchell, Kevin Tway
1.52pm Shane Lowry (Irl), Mike Weir (Can), Kevin O’Connell
2.03pm Angel Cabrera (Arg), Aaron Wise, Justin Harding (Rsa)
2.14pm Danny Willett (Eng), Brandt Snedeker, Takumi Kanaya (a) (Jpn)
2.25pm Fred Couples, Si Woo Kim (Kor), J.B. Holmes
2.36pm Emiliano Grillo (Arg), Branden Grace (Rsa), Lucas Bjerregaard (Den)
2.47pm Charl Schwartzel (Rsa), Charles Howell III, Eddie Pepperell (Eng)
2.58pm Sergio Garcia (Spa), Tony Finau, Henrik Stenson (Swe)
3.09pm Adam Scott (Aus), Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn), Kyle Stanley
3.31pm Patrick Reed, Webb Simpson, Viktor Hovland (a) (Nor)
3.42pm Charley Hoffman, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa), Marc Leishman (Aus)
3.53pm Tommy Fleetwood (Eng), Xander Schauffele, Gary Woodland
4.04pm Tiger Woods, Haotong Li (Chn), Jon Rahm (Spa)
4.15pm Rory McIlroy (NIrl), Rickie Fowler, Cameron Smith (Aus)
4.26pm Michael Kim, Sandy Lyle (Sco), Patton Kizzire
4.37pm Trevor Immelman (Rsa), Martin Kaymer (Ger), Devon Bling
4.48pm Jimmy Walker, Larry Mize, Stewart Cink
4.59pm Jose-Maria Olazabal (Spa), Kevin Na, Thorbjorn Olesen (Den)
5.10pm Bernhard Langer (Ger), Matt Wallace (Eng), Alvaro Ortiz (Mex)
5.32pm Alex Noren (Swe), Keegan Bradley, Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng)
5.43pm Billy Horschel, Vijay Singh (Fij), (a) Jovan Rebula (Rsa)
5.54pm Kevin Kisner, Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Tha), Shugo Imahira (Jpn)
6.05pm Zach Johnson, Ian Poulter (Eng), Matt Kuchar
6.16pm Francesco Molinari (Ita), Rafael Cabrera-Bello (Spa), Tyrrell Hatton (Eng)
6.27pm Bubba Watson, Patrick Cantlay, Satoshi Kodaira (Jpn)
6.38pm Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Jason Day (Aus)
6.49pm Phil Mickelson, Justin Rose (Eng), Justin Thomas
7pm Jordan Spieth, Paul Casey (Eng), Brooks Koepka
The 67-year-old ignored his dad’s advice to sink his ball in the water after holding a Par 3 lead with one hole to play before finishing fourth in the Masters later in the week.
The American, who had earned a Green Jacket three years earlier, came agonizingly close to breaking the jinx before he finished one shot behind leader Larry Mize.
Two other winners of the Par 3 contest have also finished as Masters runners-up four days later: Raymond Floyd in 1990 and Chip Beck in 1993.
